Poland's Defence Minister Radek Sikorski has accused Russia of using its energy reserves as a means of blackmailing its western neighbours.

In a BBC interview, Mr Sikorski said Poland wanted a commercial relationship with Russian energy suppliers, without monopolies, price-fixing or blackmail.

His comments echo concerns raised by US Vice-President Dick Cheney at a recent eastern European regional meeting.

Next week, Russia and the EU will have talks at a Black Sea resort.

Poland has previously criticised Russia for cutting gas supplies to Ukraine in January in a price dispute, and for signing a deal with Germany to build an undersea gas pipeline bypassing Poland.

We want... no monopolies or blackmails, price-fixing or the use of energy as a tool of politics, or geopolitics

Radek Sikorski

Mr Sikorski recently compared the deal to the pre-World War II Nazi-Soviet pact which carved up Poland.

The $5bn (£2.7bn) pipeline, agreed in September 2005, will connect Babayevo in Russia to Greifswald in Germany.

The 1,200km (744-mile) pipeline is now under construction and will deliver Russian gas to Germany - and eventually to other Western European nations - by 2010.

Poland has asked the EU to forge a more coherent common policy on energy in the face of new challenges.

But its proposal for a new Energy Security Treaty, to provide mutual energy security in the same way as the Nato alliance offers protection against military attack, has so far won little public support.